CurtainUp
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A CurtainUp London Review
Time Is Love/Tiempo Es Amor
Ten years ago, at Shakespeare's Globe Chè Walker's play The Frontline looked at a similar population in Walker's home Camden Town but in a more episodic way review. In Time is Love the stories are convincingly threaded together. Walker has said that Othello was his inspiration and what if Desdemona really had been unfaithful? Blaz (Gabriele Akuwudike), a small time criminal, has been with the beautiful Havana (Jessica Ledon) since they were childhood sweethearts at school. Blaz gets three years in prison while his friend Karl gets away from the crime scene. Havana is seduced by Seamus (Cary Crankson) whom she has no idea is a policeman, let alone a bent copper and the very one who arrested Blaz. We feel the loneliness that Blaz's incarceration has caused her. Is it an accident that Sheila Atim so recently played Desdemona's woman servant Emilia in Othello at the Globe? Here she is as a supporter of Havana, knowing what she does from her job at a lap dancer at the club owned by the unseen Jimmy Rotimi. Atim has an amazing stage presence, she is tall and stately and as Rosa speaks a mesmerising account of the loss of her lover and it is impossible to let your eyes leave her. When she says "My currency is loneliness" she may be referring to what brings her employment as a lap dancer or where she finds herself now after the death of her "married to someone else" lover. Walker's play is full of such riddles. Sheila Atim is also the composer of the atmospheric music for the play but sadly we don't hear her sing. There is no equality when it comes to the offence caused by infidelity in this Latin American quarter, the barrio of Los Angeles. It is not just limited to the attitude of the Latino men as the Caucasian cop illustrates in his diatribes against his wife. Scenes of sexual intimacy and fights are choreographed and enhanced with video at the rear showing the filmic, passionate scenes in black and white. Serena (Sasha Frost) acts as a narrator and talks about pterodactyls flying over Los Angeles but I'm not sure why. I still can't get to grips with what Chè Walker's play is saying as a whole. I can't make Blaz's friend Karl fit the Iago mould. The performances in Time is Love are good but the message blurred. |
Search CurtainUp in the box below PRODUCTION NOTES Time Is Love/Tiempo Es Amor Written and directed by Chè Walker Starring: Sheila Atim, Jessica Ledon, Gabriel Akuwudike, Cary Crankson, Sasha Frost, Benjamin Cawley Composer: Sheila Atim Lighting Design: Tim Van't Hof Choreographer: Jonny Vieco Videographer: Chai Rolfe Production Electrician: Angus Chisholm Running time: One hour 30 minutes without an interval Box Office: 01223 357 851 Booking to 26th January 2019 Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge based on 4th January 2018 evening performance at the Finborough Theatre, 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED (Tube: Earls Court) Index of reviewed shows still running , REVIEW FEEDBACK Highlight one of the responses below and click "copy" or"CTRL+C"
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